Supreme Court Mulls Corporate Claims About Seized Assets in Cuba

The Supreme Court on Feb. 23 grappled with two cases about U.S. business assets that Cuba’s communist government seized decades ago. The cases are Havana Docks Corp. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises and Exxon Mobil v. Corporacion Cimex, which the justices heard back-to-back in more than three hours of oral arguments. Both cases focus on the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, created to pressure Cuba by penalizing companies “trafficking” in property Cuba seized from U.S. interests. Also known as the Helms-Burton Act, the law allows U.S. citizens and companies to sue any person who traffics in, uses, or profits from the confiscated property....